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John Terry at Aston Villa

The 36-year-old former Chelsea and England captain returns to the second tier of English football for the first time in 17 years, following a brief loan spell at Nottingham Forest at the turn of the millennium.

Terry is still well respected from his time at Stamford Bridge and remains determined to guide Villa to the title this season as the club's newly assigned captain.

Steve Bruce has put a lot of pressure on Terry's shoulders this season and it will no doubt be a challenge for the veteran defender.

Chris Samba, Alan Hutton and Neil Taylor are not of the same quality as Terry's previous team-mates, but will he be able to whip them into shape and make Villa a force to be reckoned with?

John Terry will captain Aston Villa as they look to win promotion back to the Premier League

Big-spending Boro

Newly-appointed Middlesbrough manager Garry Monk has splashed the cash this summer to create an impressive squad.

A club-record fee of £15million spent to bring Britt Assombalonga in from Nottingham Forest has fans excited for the prospect of a successful season and hopefully an instant return to the top-flight.

The club also spent £9m on Martin Braithwaite from Toulouse, £6.5m on Ashley Fletcher and £5m on Darren Randolph - both from West Ham.

Garry Monk has spent heavily since joining Middlesbrough this summer

Can the North East bounce back?

Fans of Hull, Middlesbrough and Sunderland will be hoping for immediate promotion back to the Premier League after seeing their sides suffer relegation last season.

In the last 10 years, only nine of 30 relegated teams have achieved promotion back to the top-flight at the first time of asking.

Hull have been in this situation before in 2015 and managed to make an immediate Premier League return through the play-offs.

Will they be able to do the same this year with the appointment of new manager Leonid Slutsky, who has never managed outside of Russia?

Ruben Neves at Wolves

Wolves have emerged as one of the most ambitious sides in the division after handing over £15.8m - a Championship record fee - to sign Ruben Neves from Porto.

Neves believes the move to the Midlands will make it easier for him to play in the Premier League as he is confident that Wolves will make him a better player.

The 20-year-old defensive midfielder became the youngest captain in Champions League history against Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2015. However, many people have reservations about Wolves' partnership with Portugese agent Jorge Mendes.

If Neves continues to improve those reservations will surely disappear.

Portugal international Ruben Neves has made a shock move from Porto to Wolves

Assombalonga favourite for the Golden Boot?

Britt Assombalonga joined Middlesbrough for a club-record £15m fee in July. Last season he scored 14 goals for Nottingham Forest, at a rate of one every 130 minutes – the third-best record after Newcastle striker Dwight Gayle (93 minutes) and Nelson Oliveira at Norwich (127 minutes).

Assombalonga suffered injury problems during his time at Forest but still managed to score 30 goals in 65 Championship appearances, making him the player to watch this season.

It is easy to understand why Monk signed him and if he kept up his current strike rate he would score 32 goals for Middlesbrough this season.

Britt Assombalonga joined Middlesbrough for a club-record £15million fee back in July

Aston Villa rely on experience

Aston Villa are one of the early favourites to secure automatic promotion, despite the fact they only came 13th last season.

Steve Bruce has achieved promotion from the Championship more times than any other manager and has brought in experienced players to help him on the road to another promotion.

Bruce's new centre-back partnership of Terry and Samba should create a much stronger defence, while Ahmed Elmohamady and Glenn Whelan have both previously won promotion to the top league and know what it takes.

Former Chelsea defender Terry is one of several new faces in Steve Bruce's squad at Villa Park

Last season's near misses

Fulham and Sheffield Wednesday were so close to promotion last season and they won't be slowing down this time around… nor, from the looks of things, speeding up.

Neither team have bought in a player that particularly excites but they remain among the favourites to gain promotion to the Premier League.

Rhodes failed to excite the fans while on loan last season and the pressure is on for Carlos Carvalhal to motivate the team after two seasons of missed opportunities.

Fulham, meanwhile, have secured the return of Thomas Kalas and Lucas Piazon on loan from Chelsea in the hope of finishing inside the automatic promotion places.

Derby's charge towards victory

Derby have lost out in the play-offs twice and they finished ninth last season after another disappointing campaign.

Rowett will be hoping for a better season this time around but it will be a hard slog without their top scorer from last season, Tom Ince, who is now at Huddersfield.

However, the Rams have signed two players from Hull - Curtis Davies and Tom Huddleston - who know how to take a team back to the top-flight.

Radrizanni's revolution

Leeds have had an interesting summer at Elland Road with the appointment of their new manager Thomas Christiansen and Andrea Radrizzani now owning the club outright after buying the remaining 50 per cent of shares from Massimo Cellino.

Summer is not the time to scrimp and save and they have brought in nine players including making two of last season's loanees permanent parts of the squad - Pontus Jansson and Hadi Sacko.

Has Christiansen done too much too soon? Will he be able to gel his new-look squad? Some people like change, others don't – let's hope that this change will be for the better.

Thomas Christiansen has been appointed as the new manager of Leeds United

Wolves to shine under Santo?

How could we not mention Wolves as a contender this season? They have already broken records with the signing of Ruben Neves for £15.8m and continued with their free spending by bringing Roderick Miranda and Barry Douglas to Molineux.

Wolves have become a diverse team with players from all over Europe such as Diogo Jota from Atletico Madrid, Ruben Vinsagre from Monaco and Willy Boly from Porto.

Norwich, meanwhile, must also be viewed as potential contenders for promotion with their constant yo-yoing between the Premier League and Championship.

They have recruited well, bringing in young talents Angus Gunn and Harrison Reid, as well as players who have previously experienced promotion success.